(CNN) - It’s endorsement season, and nearly every day brings at least one of the major presidential candidates a fresh nod from an Iowa or New Hampshire newspaper.

But this weekend brought New Hampshire Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney an unpleasant twist on that campaign season staple: the anti-endorsement.

The Concord Monitor printed an editorial Sunday in which it called the Massachusetts governor “a disquieting figure who sure looks like the next president and most surely must be stopped.”

Romney had earlier sat with the paper’s editorial board. “When New Hampshire partisans are asked to defend the state's first-in-the-nation primary, we talk about our ability to see the candidates up close, ask tough questions and see through the baloney,” they wrote Sunday. “If a candidate is a phony, we assure ourselves and the rest of the world, we'll know it.

“Mitt Romney is such a candidate. New Hampshire Republicans and independents must vote no.”

UPDATE: Romney spokesman Kevin Madden responded to the paper's editorial: "The Monitor's editorial board is regarded as a liberal one on many issues, so it is not surprising that they would criticize Gov. Romney for his conservative views and platform," he said in a statement.

"Governor Romney has taken firm positions that are at odds with the board's support for drivers licenses for illegal immigrants, their position against school choice and their advocacy for taking 'Under God' out of the Pledge of Allegiance. The governor happens to disagree with the editorial board on all those issues."

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"Elected in 2002, Governor Romney presided over a dramatic reversal of state fortunes and a period of sustained economic expansion. Without raising taxes or increasing debt, Governor Romney balanced the budget every year of his administration, closing a nearly $3 billion budget gap inherited when he took office. By eliminating waste, streamlining the government, and enacting comprehensive economic reforms to stimulate growth in Massachusetts, Romney got the economy moving again and transformed deficits into surpluses.

At the beginning of Governor Romney's term, Massachusetts was losing thousands of jobs every month. By the time he left office, the unemployment rate was lower, hundreds of companies had expanded or moved to Massachusetts and the state had added approximately 60,000 jobs from the low point of the recession."

Your perception on what he did for Massachusetts really depends on how much roll you feel the government should take in your daily affairs. If you feel the government should take care of you like a mother does a baby, then of course you wouldn't like what he did as governor. If you feel that the less the government interferes with your life and your pocketbook the better, then Mitt's your man. What he did as Governor was exactly the later. Yet it ticked off people, but oh well. The state is better off for it.

As the primaries and causes draw near, we are likely to see more hissing and spitting from the Romney campaign as they witness their prospects vanish in Iowa, New Hampshire South Carolina and nationally. In coming days don’t be surprised if you hear Romney supporters insisting that their candidate is the most electable nationally. They are free to make that assertion. However, there is absolutely no evidence to support their claims. All the recent polling suggests that Romney is, in fact, the least electable candidate among republican presidential hopefuls. Do not be fooled by frantic attempts by Romney and company to give the air of electability and inevitability. These are devises used by the desperate and aimed at the gullible. As the heart of Romney’s campaign feverishly pulses its last beats… thrashing for oxygen like a panic-stricken fish out of water… hemorrhaging every last drop of blood out of its wallet … voters would be wise to step back and avoid the chaos and desperation of Romney’s last agonizing moments of his political life.

Once again we hear from all the socialist leaning liberals, in short the Hillary crowd, how sad that we have a notion of such shallow minded people. Them with the normal turnout on election day it is highly possible most of these people commenting will not even bother to cast a ballot.

Senator McCain just might BEAT Romney in both NH and Iowa! Save the Romney negetive ads for Super Tuesday!! You will need a lot of help that day!!!

Romney needs ALL the endorsements and anti-endorsements he can muster even from one percent Tancredo!!! Romney needs the spot light and publicity he can get.

Tancredo drops out and endorses Romney with his one percent following! But Iowa Rep. Steve King has endorsed Thompson. Iowa Rep. Steve King who was backing Tancredo does not even follow his endorsement. Romney must be in dire shape to need the Tancredo endorsement. God save the GOP nomination.

Finally people are realizing what many of us have known all along. Mitt is a complete fraud willling to say anything to get elected. He should be ashamed of himself and NH will end his presidential aspirations on Jan 8th.

People have the right to vote for him or not. The fact that the editorial is pointing out that Romney is a phony is not too surprising. After all, Mitt is only acting in a fashion that represents how he has been raised.

So the long standing joke in Utah is: Why do you invite two Mormon's to go fishing? Answer: If you invite only one, he will drink all your beer – Bada-boom!

Romney has a remarkable resemblance to silent horror star Lon Chaney as the vampire in "London After Midnight", the same frozen smile and eyes (Google it) as he glibly spouts draconian nonsense to inspire 'the base'. The Republican base is base. The only thing to anticipate about a Romney presidency would be the excellent episodes of "The Simpsons" it would inspire. There is no there there, another hereditary millionaire who'd be as feckless as W.. My only surprise is he hasn't converted himself into a Baptist – yet. We can expect the miraculous conversion just before the Southern primaries.

Wow! You can't put too much stock in newspaper editorial endorsements, but this move is incredible. If you've watched Romney over the last year, you know he's a phony. He's dishonest and straight out can't be trusted. This is one "anti"-endorsement I agree with. Romney must be stopped at all costs.

""The real Romney is clearly an extraordinarily ambitious man with no perceivable political principle whatsoever. He is the most intellectually dishonest human being in the history of politics." – Barney Frank"

Now if I never wanted an endorsement from anyone, Barney Frank would be my man!

You wrote, "In coming days don’t be surprised if you hear Romney supporters insisting that their candidate is the most electable nationally. They are free to make that assertion."

And if the outcome is the opposite of what you desire, what would we hear from you? Would you have the guts and decency to congratulate Gov. Romney once he won IA and NH? I doubt that for some reason. Don't be so quick to form your lousy opinion based on the "anti-endoresement" of the liberal Concord Monitor and don't be so silly to think that people will fall for this "anti-endoresement".

While Romney's shifting positions is nothing new to politicals, so I would find it hard to eliminate him from consideration based on being wishy washy. However I would like to know how many times he has participated in "THE CHURCH's" Baptism of the Dead which is the height of arrogance where they convert our ancestors to the Mormon faith without permission!

Wayne in SC posts "Negative comments about anyone should be backed up by facts" – which is right and which is what the Monitor did ... if you read the whole article carefully.

sorry you didn't believe them but with Mitt being the governor just across the border, NH has a pretty good idea of what he said as opposed to what he did!

I remember voters believing Bush lies about McCain ... please, for the country's sake, don't vote for Mitt just because he "looks" presidential – almost as bad as voting for someone you can "sit and have a beer with."

PS: If Mitt is so wonderful, why did the NH Union Leader (so conservative it is to the right of Barry Goldwater) and the Boston Globe (reporting on his lawn continuing to be done by undocumented workers) BOTH decline to endorse Mitt and go for John McCain???

I think this paper is acting in desperation because they can't believe that people like him! Well I do, still do, always have ever since I have personally heard his message. Mitt Romney is actually the genuine article, he's such a great guy who will stop at nothing to get what needs to be done in office. It personally seems to me that this paper has received paper from anti-mormons or anti-romney's.

Actually, Mr.Davydov, my assertion that Mitt Romney is the most unelectable republican comes from three credible and objective sources: 1) A Rasmussen Reports poll showing that Romney has 47% core opposition (more than any other GOP candidate); 2) A Fox News poll showing that Romney has the least core support coming likely voters coming in at only 30% (less than any other GOP candidate) ; 3) The Real Politics composite poll showing that Romney comes in at only 44% to Clinton's 49% in a head-to-head match up. FYI, Clinton has the most core opposition among democrats (i.e. 47%). So, when you put the two candidates with the most core opposition together (i.e. Romney vs. Clinton), Clinton still wins by a sizable margin. These are verifiable facts... not conjecture... and not based upon Romney's anti-endorsement. You are welcome to verify them at: republicansagainstromney.blogspot.com

So basically they awarded the anti-endorsement to Romney even though Clinton and all her cackling and her constant position changing is by far more phoney. Just goes to show you what some papers will do to get some publicity now a days when their circulation continues to fall and their kingdom crumbles to dust.

Thank you. I did check out your republicansagainstromney.blogspot.com – and you know what? Instead of turning me against Romney (the intended purpose of your site), I am now more than ever convinced that he is the right one for our country at the given juncture. His strong leadership, his executive experience, his profound knowledge, and his superior intelligence are only few of his many great qualities that captivate me.

And, is that all you got for me? Just some senseless poll numbers? Puhleeze! You know better than you want to admit that these numbers don't mean anything right now. These are just statistical data with certain margins of error plus or minus. Do you believe every statistical data out there, and how many time they are wrong? Think about it and don't fool yourself.